The Obama administration is continuing its attack on the exercise of religious freedom. Though religious liberties are enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Obamacare mandate issued by the Department of Health & Human Services is still forcing Americans to deny their own deeply held religious beliefs.

The federal government is relentlessly pressuring employers to contradict the practice of their faith by forcing them, under Obamacare, to pay for health insurance coverage for drugs and services that may cause an abortion and sterilization for women. Family-owned business and religious nonprofits alike are under the Obamacare mandate. If the administration gets its way, these businesses and nonprofits could be fined out of existence.

Grocers, craft store owners, professors, electricians, craftsmen, manufacturers, contractors and publishers have all been forced to fight the federal government just to protect deeply held moral beliefs. Since the passage of Obamacare, more than 300 plaintiffs have filed nearly 100 lawsuits against President Obama's anti-religious agenda. Of the 45 nonprofits that have filed suit, 19 have been granted an injunction, including the Catholic charity, Little Sisters of the Poor. Forty-six businesses, such as national arts and craft retailer Hobby Lobby and kitchen cabinet makers Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation, also have filed suit. Thirty-three of those businesses have been granted temporary relief from the HHS mandate.

You may have heard about the Little Sisters case. It's a religious order of nuns who provide care for the elderly. They're faced with either abiding by their deeply held beliefs and facing millions of dollars in fines from the federal government, or implementing the Obamacare mandate. A U.S. Supreme Court justice has released them from the clutches of the mandate, at least for now.

The Obama administration would be wise to cut their losses and allow the Little Sisters of the Poor to operate in accordance with their religious beliefs, as protected by the U.S. Constitution. Instead, the Justice Department shamelessly stood by the HHS mandate, insisting that religious beliefs should not get in the way of the administration's push for free pills that could cause an abortion.

While we await further court proceedings, additional injunctions and a hoped-for reinstatement of religious liberties by the Supreme Court, Congress should act to put a stop to the Obama administration's HHS mandate. The House of Representatives needs to pass H.R. 940, the Health Care Conscience Rights Act. The bill would simply stop Obamacare from forcing anyone to purchase health insurance that includes coverage for a procedure or service to which that person has a moral or religious objection.

As Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The moral sense, or conscience is as much a part of man as his leg or arm." Our founding fathers were so concerned to safeguard individual rights of conscience that they established the protection of religious freedom within the Bill of Rights. We should not simply wait and hope for the Supreme Court to fix a disaster created by Obamacare, and we must not allow religious liberty rights to be trampled by a federal mandate that shows contempt for the sincerely held beliefs of individual Americans.

Rep. John Fleming, R-Minden, is a primary care physician and small business owner. He represents Louisiana's 4th Congressional District.